1. Field of the Invention
This patent relates to new applications of an energy savings system that was disclosed, by the inventor, in the said U.S. Application. This system allows for energy savings to occur when a circuit activates a second circuit(s), which immediately causes the first circuit to cease it's activation signal to the second circuit(s). The second circuit(s) then carries out a predefined process and then turns itself off. In such cases where an outside condition is monitored by the first circuit, the second circuit(s) need not be on and; therefore, using power until the first circuit detects this sought after condition.
Furthermore, the improvements in the general efficiency of processing, which is enhanced by the use of a circuit, or combination thereof, with a high level of appropriateness of the use verses another for a given task; or combinations or groups, with their respective execution sequences thereof, is also claimed in this application. This general efficiency of processing can be described in such terms as processing speed, and/or the degree of accuracy of a processor's work.
This system can exist in many forms: computer software on a dedicated or non-dedicated computer system, dedicated electronic hardware, or some combination of these two. It can also be brought about in a form whereby the software is coded or `burned` into the actual hardware of a programmable logic device or micro-controller. For example, various circuits could be composed of one or more of Motorola's.RTM. MP68HC-11 micro-controllers, or one or more of Intel's.RTM. Pentium Processors, or the logic units of one processor, thereof. Such high level languages such as BASIC can be used to program certain commercially available controllers also. An example of the BASIC code has been provided in this patent. There are also industrial applications with the programmable logic controllers that often use a programming language created by the manufacturer. The system also can be encoded in such low level languages as Assembly, or medium level languages as C++. Naturally, it could also be encoded in a higher level languages such as JAVA. Non-dedicated hardware such as PCs including lap-top PCs, and larger capacity commercial computers, along with dedicated hardware such as computer cash-registers and mobile phones are meant to be covered, for example. A system, as defined by the applicant, includes any software or hardware, or combination thereof, that is capable of executing the system described in this patent. Various methods of encoding information such as wire-bound electrical signals, optical or radio wave signals, or combinations thereof, are included in this invention.
In this application, all references to circuit(s) are to be presented, for the purpose of reducing this system to practice, by the use of the circuit, which is itself composed of two circuits, disclosed in FIG. 1, or a variation(s) on or combination(s) thereof. The basic circuit described in FIG. 1 will be referred to as a `basic circuit` for the purposes of this patent.
2. Related Art
Many systems require that one or multiple situations or processes, which can be intermittent in nature, be monitored to determine if a certain state or states exists. Typically, there is some circumstance that must be addressed while the system is stopped or paused, or when a certain condition or state has been identified as having occurred. The system has, in effect monitored itself, in order to determine if a certain condition within the system has come into existence. At this point, a second circuit or system could be signaled to act in some way.
Such is the case in intelligent, automated production systems such as a programmable profiler which can monitor the workpiece that it is machining, and determine when it has successfully completed the program; therefore, needing to have the finished workpiece removed and possibly a new work piece loaded in the machine. The profiler then could signal a server that it's workpiece is completed and that the server should execute it's program to service it. The server, upon receiving the signal from the profiler, returns a signal to the profiler that it has received the signal. The profiler is programmed to go into a lower power sleeping mode until the server can send an industrial robot to replace the finished workpiece and reset the profiler. Once this is completed, the server returns to a low power mode and waits for the next signal from another profiler.
Present systems allow no power savings for profilers that stand idle while waiting for some needed condition to met such as the changing of a workpiece. This system would allow all machines that are not needed, to automatically go to powered down or off status while another system(s), who have a separate set of capabilities and may be in a separate location, are activated into a separate action.
In another example, low power, micro-electronic temperature sensors for monitoring the local room temperature in large commercial spaces could be pre-programmed to signal a main computer, either through dedicated wires or with remote wireless technology, that the temperature in a space has fallen below a certain pre-programmed value. The server could then execute a very localized, precise response in a large building instead of attempting to heat an unnecessarily large space or being required to add additional heat to an entire space when only one section of the space has an unacceptable temperature level, or to heat all spaces to only one pre-set temperature.
This would be executed by allowing an main heating duct to open only in that localized location. This heating duct could be a centralized duct and could have such sensors stay in high power mode long enough to keep the heat register open, while the furnace pumped hot air through it.
In the design of computer processors, both asynchronous, synchronous and in parallel processing, the CPU can act to signal certain other CPU units such as extra arithmetic units to execute a task with the arithmetic unit signaling that it has received the command and will execute it. The CPU need not turn itself off, rather it could move on to the next task. The arithmetic unit then completes the calculation and returns the requested answer, thereafter turning itself off. Present processors tend to keep unneeded units of a CPU powered up when unnecessary, as the units themselves have no capability to shut them selves down when they have completed an assigned task or have no work to do.